• More people have been killed in Ukraine’s violent protests, with the death toll reaching at least 54;

• Police have charged a man with assault for allegedly groping Modern Family star Sarah Hyland in Sydney last night;

• Australia is on top after the first day of the second Test against South Africa, but the Proteas are fighting hard

LIVE UPDATES

9:50am

Australian journalist Peter Greste has been denied bail in Egypt, as he faces a trial for supposedly “airing false news” and “misleading outside viewers” about the situation in the country.

“The government regrets that Mr Greste’s detention period has been extended further and that his bail application was denied by the Egyptian court,” a spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

“We seek assurances from the Egyptian government that Mr Greste’s case will be handled fairly.”

Mr Greste has been behind bars for about two months. His detention has sparked an international outcry and prompted rallies in cities around the world.

News_Rich_Media: Juris and Louis Greste, the parents of jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste say 'they are anxious about the trial in Egypt'. Courtesy: ABC News Breakfast

A series of fires was lit aboard the Etihad Airlines flight from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi. Paula Stevens, whose brother and sister were both detained, has spoken to The Herald Sun about the ordeal.

“They were locked up for 30 hours with 10 other people on suspicion of being terrorists,” she said. “They were not fed. They didn’t get any sleep. All night we’ve been crying, trying to get the consulate to do something.”

Dutroux was jailed for life in 2004 for the kidnap and rape of six young girls, four of whom died, between June 1995 and August 1996.

“Hello, I’m a 15-year-old girl. I live in La Roche-en-Ardenne. You have always fascinated me. You’re a famous person. When I see your handsome photos, I can’t help but believe you are honest,’’ wrote one girl, whose letter was confiscated by prison officials.

“Would you like to correspond with me? If you want, I can send my picture,’’ she added.

Dutroux’s case traumatised Belgium in 1996. The teens now sending him letters were not even born then.

Dutroux is currently seeking parole, but his request is almost certain to be rejected.

News_Image_File: Marc Dutroux.

8:48am

The leader of the popular indie-rock group Bright Eyes has slapped a woman with a $US1 million lawsuit, claiming she ruined his good guy image by wrongfully accusing him of rape in a series of anonymous internet posts.

Conor Oberst filed the defamation suit in Manhattan federal court, naming his alleged accuser as “Joanie Faircloth” and saying “she’s a pathological liar with a well-documented history of spinning tales and fabricating sexually themed stories about others to benefit herself”.

Oberst cited comments posted on the website xojane.com in December. Faircloth, now in her mid-20s, allegedly made false statements about being raped by Oberst at a Bright Eyes concert when she was 16.

News_Image_File: Conor Oberst performs at the Newport Folk Festival.

8:40am

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou says Richmond star Jake King’s continued association with bikie figure Toby Mitchell “defies belief”, and the Tigers forward should reconsider the friendship for his and his club’s sake.

“I’ve spoken to (Richmond CEO) Brendon Gale,” Demetriou told The Herald Sun. I said to him I didn’t share his view that as a club you couldn’t tell a player who he should or shouldn’t associate with.

“We’ve spent 12 months talking about people who seek to infiltrate the game for a number of things.”

News_Image_File: Jake King smiles during a Richmond Tigers training session.

8:31am

It has been claimed that the Iranian asylum seeker killed on Monday night was murdered by out-of-control guards who stomped on his skull as he lay defenceless on the ground, Paul Toohey reports.

According to an account from an Australian guard working for security contractor GS4, local guards were in a frenzy and jumped on the man’s head in a rage.

But Papua New Guinea clearly believes the Australians are covering up, with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill insisting no New Guineans were involved.

News_Rich_Media: The company responsible for security at the Manus Island detention centre has hit out at allegations staff.

8:18am

The Queensland boss of the Australian Medical Association has been sidelined by his own organisation after telling doctors he supported the Newman government’s public hospital contracts, The Courier-Mail reports.

The AMA’s federal president Steve Hambleton has taken over from Queensland president Christian Rowan as the public face of a campaign to force the state government back to the negotiating table.

Dr Rowan triggered unrest by saying he was willing to sign one of the contracts, which he said had the “capacity to drive productivity, efficiency, value for money and enhance transparency of outcomes for the public hospital system”.

The father of Miranda Barbour, who has been charged with killing a man she met through Craigslist, says he would support his daughter’s execution if she were found guilty and would even hold the hand of the victim’s widow.

Sonny Dean also told The Daily Item he believes Miranda, 19, may have been involved in one other murder.

But he cast doubt on his daughter’s claim, made in a prison interview, that she has killed more than 20 people.

“I don’t believe her,” he said. “No way. Miranda lives in a fantasy world made up in her own mind ... She craves attention, is selfish, dishonest and manipulative.”

About 80 South Koreans travelled through falling snow with their families to North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort to meet children, brothers, sisters, spouses and other relatives. Seoul had said about 180 North Koreans were expected to attend.

The reunions are all the more poignant because the participants will part again in a few days, likely forever.

News_Rich_Media: Reunions between separated families living in South and North Korea get underway. Julie Noce reports.

But their request has fallen on unsympathetic ears, with authorities telling Corby’s circle she won’t get permission to conduct the interview. The parole board chief will soon be writing an official letter to that effect.

So keen are they to push ahead with the planned tell-all with Channel 7’s Sunday Night that Corby, her brother-in-law and parole guarantor Wayan Widyartha, and sister Mercedes signed a letter asking for a permit to conduct the interview.

News_Rich_Media: Schapelle Corby is expected to be told not to do her anticipated TV interview by Indonesian authorities.

7:43am

A mortar attack has struck a busy area in a town south of Iraq’s capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 50, authorities say.

The five mortar rounds slammed into a busy market, a residential building and a parking lot at about 7pm as people returned home from work and shopped in the town of Musayyib.

The area south of Baghdad holds a volatile mix of Sunnis and Shiites, and has been a flashpoint for some of the country’s worst sectarian violence in recent years.

The band had been filming in Sochi since Sunday, and had also been detained several times. On Wednesday, Cossak militia members attacked the group with horsewhips as it tried to perform under an Olympic sign.

Band members said they were returning to Moscow to attend the verdicts in the trial of 20 people who were arrested after clashes on the eve of Mr Putin’s inauguration to a third term in 2012.

News_Rich_Media: Pussy Riot release a new music video criticising Russia's "staging" of the Sochi Games and its human rights record, entitled "Putin will teach you how to love the motherland." Jillian Kitchener reports.

7:27am

Detectives and crime scene experts spent hours at the Melbourne home of Robert and Cheryl Adamson yesterday as they searched for clues regarding the couple’s murder.

A four-wheel drive, belonging to the Adamsons’ adult son Michael, was towed away on a trailer for “further forensic examination”, The Herald Sun reports.

Michael had previously been ruled out as a suspect.

Computer hard drives and up to 10 guns were among the items detectives removed from the house. Police said the firearms were registered to Robert Adamson, and were taken “for safety reasons”.

Hyland was attending a Qantas Airlines party with other members of the show’s cast when an aggressive fan grabbed at her breast. The 23-year-old was responding to a request for an autograph when the incident occurred.

News_Image_File: Sarah Hyland pictured in Sydney.

6:52am

Federal MP Clive Palmer has been ordered to pay a retired dentist more than $700,000 after losing a legal battle over some rounds of golf.

Palmer, who has previously boasted of a 68-0 record in court cases and once listed litigation as a hobby, was ordered to pay Dr Dean Andary $718,983 in Queensland Supreme Court yesterday.

The legal dispute was sparked by an argument over a lease to play golf on the course at Palmer’s Coolum Resort.

“Though the wisdom of some of his actions may seem questionable, as an actor and artist I’m inclined to take an empathetic view of his conduct,” Franco says in an op-ed for the New York Times.

“This behaviour could be a sign of many things, from a nervous breakdown to mere youthful recklessness,” he says. “I hope it is nothing serious. Indeed I hope — and yes, I know that this idea has pretentious or just plain ridiculous overtones — that his actions are intended as a piece of performance art.”

He’s right. That does sound pretentious.

News_Image_File: James Franco. What a wise guy.

6:09am

Oscar Pistorius’s prosecutors now admit the sprinter may not have been wearing his prosthetic legs when he fired the shots that killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

The concession removes a key argument for premeditation in the alleged murder.

According to a document obtained by local TV channel eNCA, the state’s own ballistics expert believes Pistorius was “most likely” on his stumps when he shot Steenkamp through a bathroom door.

Pistorius, whose trial begins on March 3, denies the charge of murder and says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.

News_Image_File: Oscar Pistorius pictured with Reeva Steenkamp.

6:05am

More people have been killed in Ukraine’s violent protests, and the nation’s interior ministry says 67 police troops have been captured by protesters.

Video footage shown on Ukrainian television showed protesters apparently leading some of the captured policemen around their sprawling camp in central Kiev.

Armed protesters stormed police barricades overnight in renewed violence that killed at least 26 people and shattered an hours-old truce.

There are conflicting reports regarding the number of people who have lost their lives in the protests, but the total death toll is now at least 54.

News_Rich_Media: Protesters have stormed police barricades in Kiev in renewed violence that has shattered an hours-old truce.